It’s been another record breaking year here in the Maker Shed, and we owe it all to everyone who purchased a kit, microcontroller, PDF or anything else from us in 2012. Thousands of orders were shipped from our warehouse in Sebastopol, California to makers all over the globe! Ever wonder what our most popular products are? Below are the top 10 products purchased in 2012:

#10

Deluxe Breadboard Jumper Wires – You can’t have enough jumper wires. I frequently tack on a pack when I place and order, it looks like I’m not the only one.

#9

Ultimate Microcontroller Pack with Arduino Uno – Makers are all about learning by experimentation, which is what the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack is all about. With plenty of components, you can learn the basics and go beyond without having to purchase additional items. It’s also great for advanced users who want a large selection of Arduino compatible parts.

#8

MintyBoost USB Charger Kit – Ah, the Mintyboost. It’s simple to build and extremely handy to have around. This kit charges nearly anything that uses a USB port using power from 2 – AA batteries. It’s open-source, hackable, and almost guaranteed to pull you out of a jam. My power was off for 3 days this summer and a MintyBoost kept my iPhone charged the entire time. It’s one of my favorites and apparently one of yours too!

#7

MakerShield Kit – The MakerSheild is an ever versatile protoshield for Arduino and Netduino microcontrollers. It has a nice, big prototyping area for building circuits and perfectly fits a mini breadboard for prototyping ease. With an on-board potentiometer, input and reset buttons, and 2 LEDs, it’s the a great choice for experimentation with microcontrollers. Don’t forget to check out Make:Projects for examples on how to use it!

#6

Getting Started with Arduino, 2nd Edition – This book by Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi pairs perfectly with our Getting Started with Arduino Kit. The book assumes you know nothing about Arduino or programming and gradually teaches you the basics with simple, easy to follow projects. It’s a great way get your feet wet with the Arduino without being overwhelmed with complexity.

#5

Netduino Plus (2) – The Netduino Plus (recently upgraded to the Netduino Plus 2) climbed up the charts this year to our number 5 top seller. This powerful microcontroller is programmed using Microsoft #C or Visual Basic (The ‘net’ in Netduino is for .NET). It has the same footprint and pin layout as the Arduino (thus the ‘duino) making it compatible with many of the available Arduino shields on the market. The Netduino Plus features onboard Ethernet and a microSD card slot for increased storage space. The new “2” version has four times the speed (168Mhz), six times the code space (384KB) and twice the RAM (100+KB) of the previous version.

#4

Arduino Uno – The original Arduino Uno is still the maker’s favorite microcontroller. It’s easy to learn, has a huge community, and there’s a shield for just about anything. From blinking LEDs to controlling UAVs, it’s easy to see why the Arduino is so popular.

#3

Make: School’s Out Summer Fun Guide – This special issue of MAKE was created to help kids fight summer boredom with making. Photos for the 50+ projects were shot in 3D for added fun and interactivity. The guide features everything from zip-lines to soldering and everything in-between!

#2

Getting Started with Arduino Kit V3.0 – Our Getting Started with Arduino Kit helped thousands of makers learn to use the Arduino Microcontroller this year. The kit contains everything you need to follow along with the Getting Started with Arduino listed above. Strong sales at RadioShack and Microcenter helped boost this popular kit to the number 2 position.

#1

Learn to Solder Skill Badge – The Learn to Solder badge has been used to teach thousands of people around the world to solder. It looks cool, is simple to make, inexpensive, and it’s blinky! We ship these to Maker Faires all over the world, as well as to hackerspaces, schools, and even Boy Scout camps. It’s a perfect introduction to making and a great way to learn a life long skill. Quantity wise, it’s easily our best seller of 2012.

Thanks for a great year! We’re looking forward to making 2013 even better.

I am the Evangelist for the Maker Shed. It seems that there is no limit to my making interests. I’m a tinkerer at heart and have a passion for solving problems and figuring out how things work. When not working for Make I can be found falling off my unicycle, running in adverse weather conditions, skiing down the nearest hill, restoring vintage motorcycles, or working on my car.